Belarus journalist named IPI World Press Freedom Hero
Founder and chair of Press Club Belarus, Yuliya Slutskaya, has been named International Press Institute’s (IPI) 72nd World Press Freedom Hero. The award honours journalists who have made significant contributions to the promotion of press freedom, particularly in the face of great personal risk.
In 2011, Slutskaya established the Belarus Press Club while living in exile in Warsaw. After conditions improved in Belarus, she moved the Press Club’s operations to Minsk in late 2015. The Club became a central meeting place for Belarusian and international journalists, IPI said.
“Slutskaya and several members of her staff were jailed on trumped-up tax evasion charges as part of the Lukashenko regime’s crackdown on press freedom and freedom of expression. She and four colleagues were released after eight months of pre-trial detention in August.”
The award will be presented by IPI and Copenhagen-based International Media Support together with the Free Media Pioneer on September 16 in Vienna as part of IPI’s World Congress. Indian news site The Wire has earlier been announced as the 2021 Free Media Pioneer last week.
Slutskaya has been editor-in-chief of the independent daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi and of independent broadcaster European Radio for Belarus. Having left Belarus after the presidential election 2010 for Warsaw she founded the Belarus in Focus Information Office and later the Belarus Press Club.
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